page_title: Ipswich Street line
section_title: Streetcar line
hierarchical_section_title: Ipswich Street line / History / Streetcar line
caption_attribution_description: English: Type 5 streetcar #5545 turns onto Boylston Street from Ipswich Street. It is running on the Aubudon Road–Massachusetts shuttle bound for Massachusetts (wrongly signed), placing this between mid-1933 and July 14, 1934.
context_page_description: The Ipswich Street line was a streetcar line in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. The line ran on Boylston Street and Ipswich Street in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood, and on Brookline Avenue through what is now the Longwood Medical Area to Brookline Village.
  First proposed in the mid-1890s to aid development of the newly created Fenway–Kenmore area, the line opened in July 1900. Service initially ran between Park Street station and Cypress Street Carhouse; service was extended to Chestnut Hill later in 1900. The east end of the route was cut back to Massachusetts station in 1925. The next year, the Ipswich Street line and the Huntington Avenue line swapped western terminals, with Ipswich Street service again running to Cypress Street. Service was cut back to Brookline Village in 1932, cut further to a short Audubon Road–Massachusetts shuttle in mid-1933, and abandoned entirely in July 1934.
  As streetcar service was cut back, it was replaced by bus routes. MBTA bus routes 55 and 60 are direct descendants of the Ipswich Street line, while route 65 also runs along part of the former line.
context_section_description: In the 1890s, the West End Street Railway rapidly electrified its existing horsecar system. The speedier electric streetcars also allowed expansion into suburbs like Brookline and Brighton; new lines were built on Beacon Street in 1888–89 and on Commonwealth Avenue in 1894–96. The 1890s also saw the filling of the Back Bay Fens north of the Muddy River for new development. In 1895, a group of Brookline businessmen proposed a street car line from Newton Centre to downtown Boston independent of the West End. The line was to run southeast from Newton Centre on Cypress Street and Jackson Street, east to Brookline on Boylston Street (the Worcester Turnpike), and around Brookline Village on Cypress Street, School Street, and Aspinwall Avenue. It was to then run northeast on Brookline Avenue and the new western section of Boylston Street through the newly filled Fens, then use Newbury Street and Arlington Street to reach the Tremont Street Subway. This routing was to avoid all West End-owned tracks, allowing the new line to use the city-owned subway even if the West End would not grant trackage rights over its surface lines. The West End's counterproposal called for an extension from Reservoir on Chestnut Hill Avenue and Boylston Street.
  In 1897, the West End proposed to extend its line on Boylston Street westward from Massachusetts Avenue through the newly developing area. Objections were raised over the portion through the Fens parkland: the tracks would impede public access to the recently landscaped park, and the arch bridge over the Muddy River was in poor condition. A compromise was soon worked out where the line would divert north along Ispwich Street, parallel to the Boston and Albany Railroad mainline, thus avoiding the park entrance and the deficient bridge. The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) – successor to the West End – began construction of the line in early 1899. By midyear, it was largely complete except for gaps where the city was laying water mains.
  Service on the line as far west as Longwood Avenue began on July 23, 1900. The full route opened around the end of the month; streetcars ran from the Cypress Street carhouse on existing tracks on Cypress Street and Boylston Street, on new tracks northeast on Brookline Avenue and east on Boylston Street and Ipswich Street, then east on existing tracks on Boylston Street to the subway. The same week, the BERy also opened a branch of the Huntington Avenue line from Brookline Village to Coolidge Corner (with through service to Allston); the two routes shared a short section of track in Brookline Village. In October or November, the line was extended west on Boylston Street from Cypress Street to the Newton line at Chestnut Hill. On May 5, 1903, the Boston and Worcester Street Railway (B&W) began operations; east of Chestnut Hill, it used the BERy tracks on Boylston Street and Huntington Avenue.
  By 1907, regular service on the Ipswich Street line ran between Chestnut Hill and Park Street, with short turns running between Longwood Avenue and Park Street. Cypress Street Carhouse–Park Street trips were made to move streetcars in and out of the carhouse. In 1912, the BERy opened a transfer station at Brookline Village, simplifying transfers between the Ispwich Street line and the Huntington Avenue line's branches. The line was diverted into the new surface transfer station at Massachusetts station on November 28, 1919, where transfers could be made within fare control to the Massachusetts Avenue streetcar line and the Boylston Street Subway.
  On June 13, 1925, the Ipswich Street line was cut back from Park Street to Massachusetts. It was the last service to run on Boylston Street between Copley Square and Massachusetts; a Bowdoin Square–Fenway bus route ran in its stead. In March 1926, the Huntington Avenue and Ipswich lines swapped western terminals, with Ipswich Street cars running to Cypress Street. This change restored a one-seat ride from Chestnut Hill to downtown Boston, which had been lost from the 1925 change.
  As construction of the Worcester Turnpike progressed eastw
caption: The Audubon Road shuttle around 1934
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